A square is made up of 16 squares, each of which is coloured either black or white. Let be the number of these squares such that within the square there are no squares made up entirely of white squares. What is the digit sum of
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As the title suggests, we use PIE, or the Principle of Inclusion-Exclusion. We count the complement: the number of ways at least one corner can have a 3 × 3 white corner. The number of ways one corner can have a 3 × 3 white square is 2 7 , as each of the other 7 squares can be either color. The number of ways two adjacent corners can have white 3 × 3 squares is 2 4 , as there are 4 squares that can be either color. The number of ways two opposite corners can have white 3 × 3 squares is 2 2 , since only 2 squares can be either color. The number of ways three corners can have white 3 × 3 squares is 2 , as only the other corner can be either color. Finally, there is only 1 way all four corners can have 3 × 3 white squares.
By PIE, the number of ways is 4 ⋅ 2 7 − 4 ⋅ 2 4 − 2 ⋅ 2 2 + 4 ⋅ 2 − 1 = 4 4 7 Then, n is 2 1 6 − 4 4 7 = 6 5 0 8 9 and the answer is 6 + 5 + 0 + 8 + 9 = 2 8 .